On Wednesday 1st July, VAL contacted volunteers who had registered as part of the volunteer bank created in partnership with Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council. Volunteers came forward from the Leicester City, Charnwood, Blaby and Oadby and Wigston areas. By the following evening, over 150 volunteers came forward and were passed onto the local NHS by VAL.
VAL continued to offer additional volunteers, and between Friday and Sunday over 45 volunteers were mobilised to support COVID-19 testing, contributing more than 100 volunteer days.
Paul Akroyd, Team Manager of VAL’s Voluntary Sector Support service, said:
We’re hugely grateful to all of the volunteers who put themselves forward to support us and the local NHS. Mobilising over 100 volunteers at such short notice is no easy task, but between the hard work of our Sector Support team and the cooperation of our volunteers, we were able to respond to the request in just one working day.
Of the 2,500 people who came forward to register to volunteer during the pandemic, many are still available to offer their time to those who need it. Please get in touch with VAL if you need volunteer support, especially during the extended lockdown.
VAL has had a great deal of positive feedback around volunteer mobilisation, including comments from Public Health England:
Paul – just a note of genuine thanks for your support over the last few weeks and days – your guys have made the difference and enabled us to do this and having you on hand to facilitate has been invaluable.
Brilliant thank you… Can’t believe how nice and lovely people are, truly humbled. Thank you so much for all the help.
A MASSIVE thank-you from Public Health England!!
Volunteer support across Leicester and Leicestershire
If you’d like to volunteer your time to support people across the city or county, you can sign up on our VAL Volunteering website.
If you need volunteers to help support your organisation or community group to help local communitiies during the pandemic, you can contact us directly:
helpline@valonline.org.uk
0116 257 5050